Hello everyone, how is your semester going?  Mid-terms are coming so you probably are reviewing a lot of English vocabulary words.  I want to suggest a new way of studying vocabulary.  I think it could be very helpful for you.
  First of all, what do you think is the most common way that students review vocabulary?  If you said “memorization”, you are probably right!  This method is very traditional, and unfortunately, not very useful.  To be frank, I think that memorizing a list of English words and translating them to Korean is a big waste of time!  The reason is that you probably will not actually remember how to use these words in real situations.  Language is a tool for communication, so if you can’t use these words in a conversation, then you have not properly learned them. 
  So how should you learn new words?  The first suggestion I have is to learn vocabulary words as “full ideas”.  Don’t just learn a single word like “carpenter”.  Learn an idea like “The carpenter is making a chair”.  Picture the image of a carpenter in your mind.  Maybe even draw a little picture to help you remember.  If you can force your brain to think of the meaning of the word in context, it can be very powerful. 
  Also, try to remember the form of vocabulary words.  If you are learning a noun, try to remember if it is countable or uncountable.  For example, “My brother is a carpenter”.  This way, you will remember to use articles with the word.  If you are studying a verb, try to remember if the verb needs an object or not.  For example, the word “send” needs an object.  So you could learn the sentence “My friend sent me a letter”.
  Vocabulary isn’t as simple as translating the word back into your language.  Try to focus on the meaning of the word and the rules for that word in English.  If you do that, your vocabulary skills will really improve!